By Fiona Crump
Fiona Crump is a founding partner of evolution personal and Corporate Development Ltd. and is Director of Personal Development. She is an NLP Master Practitioner and NLP Coach and has a huge amount of experience from working with a wide range of organisations across the UK.
I was working with a client this week whose confidence and self esteem have taken a serious knock recently and I realised that this has been a regular theme for many of the women I work with.
The situation seems to have been exacerbated by the current economic climate and people are finding that their tried and tested techniques just aren’t working. In many cases this is leading to a loss of confidence in their ability
Even the most positive and outgoing people can be adversely affected by stress, illness, relationship problems, depression, bullying at work or redundancy and it’s interesting to note how often a problem in one area of life can lead to a lack of confidence in all areas. This lack of confidence leads to a decrease in effectiveness in all areas of our life, and in all activities.
Studies into Women in Leadership roles have demonstrated that Confidence is key to the effectiveness of leaders (Howard & Bray, 1988; Klemp & McClelland, 1987; Lombardo & McCall, 1988). Leadership is critical to business success so it is easy to see how poor performance leads to lower confidence which leads to poorer performance and this becomes a vicious circle.
In a 2011study, University of Warwick psychology researcher Dr Zachary Estes looked at women’s ability to perform a 3D mental rotation task, while at the same time manipulating their confidence levels. It was found that when women feel more confident about themselves, their ability to perform the task improves. What I find really interesting about this research is that confidence can be manipulated (up or down) so easily.
In the past I have run confidence courses with women in mind – women who want to take a step back and develop some real, deep down confidence, and it seems to me that it is probably time to run some more.
I created a different kind of course – one which allows women space to think, to explore ideas, to give support to other course members and to receive support from them in return.
For my part I offer caring facilitation, tools and techniques which are proven to boost confidence, exercises to provoke thought and opportunities for success.
Regaining your confidence and self esteem is in your hands, all you need is the space, time and skills to do it.
